And Own Goal gets his first assist of the tournament! A brilliant pass to Diego Costa's knee with just enough pace to let him first-time it home! Coincidentally, Own Goal was the one who gave Iran its first 3 points in the tournament, now looking to punish his old team.
Get impregnated by a World Cup player, win free Whoppers, says Burger King https://www.theguardian.com/busines...king-world-cup-pregnant-offer-apology-russian
So in Group B it may be down to whom can trash their opponent more in the final game for top spot. Spain plays a decent but already eliminated Morocco while Portugal plays an Iranian team that will have to actually come out and play.
Funny this 11 shots 0 goals narrative they keep pushing on Messi. None of those chances except for the obvious PK were actually clear chances.
Not a good look for Messi during the anthem. Looked stressed as fuk. If they lose this, that's gonna be played over and over.
Rakitic apparently worked with the coaching staff for three days providing information and tactics to use against Messi ... With the Argie manager in charge they needn't of bothered... he's even more clueless than our guy .
Always amazes me that the country that produces the most top managers (arguably) always has a hack managing the NT. That 2015 Copa win was nothing out of the ordinary as far as managerial feats go. Chile were always set up well to get to the final at least. The fact that they won a tougher tournament right after Sampaoli left says it all.
How does this lead to Messi barely walk on the field? It's laughable that all Argies hack on Sampaoli. From Pekerman to Sampaoli over 12 years, four World Cups and a handful of Copas, not a single manager could make Messi an integral part of the squad. The truth is, a lot of fans should more concentrate on Messi when it comes to the Argentina NT but that would mean to demolish his legend to a certain extent. But they decide to hate the coach .. again. a never ending story since 12 years. For the best of all, fans, players and coaching staff, I hope Messi retires from NT football and concentrates om Barca for the rest of his career.
He has a great scoring record playing for Egypt. Admittedly I've barely watched him play for them though.
You are allowed to disagree but the question is why Messi never delivered to his potential for Argentina in several outfits while he's excelling at Barca. He should free himself from this monkey on the back and concentrate on Barca, so he's able to play as much years on the highest level for his club as possible. But hey, as I said, you can disagree if you want
In yesterday's case it was a tactical decision to play Messi closer to the goal to take advantage of any goal scoring chance. The downside is that he'd see much less of the ball unless chances were created for him. Still at the end of the game he showed his class by making a nut meg pass to Dybala, who if he had put his head up twice, could have passed the ball back to him free right in front of the goal.
Yes, we can definitely agree to disagree. For many years now, Messi has been by far the most positive contributor to Argentina's success. No titles with them is true, but one player is one player. The Sampaoli criticism? Tactics don't work, and the team is joyless/weak mentally, both core areas of the coach. ps. Basic etiquette, after a tough loss, not to pop on to a forum to **** on a player. Yes this is no Argentina forum, but when some team throws Portugal out, one wouldn't go to celebrate on Real Madrid's forum.
The coach was getting slaughtered even before his bizarre comments came to light . He's rated as a one trick pony who gets his teams to press and press hard and fast -tactics clearly not suited to this group of players
Good coach or bad coach, he wasn't implementing his tactics successfully with barely a year to go before the WC. AFA should have gone back to Sabella and implement the tactics that gave them the best chance like in 14. What they really needed was some fast players to play a counter attacking style.
Eh.. I didn't hate on Messi, just stating the obvious. I said that he should concentrate on Barca for the good of it for club and player. You should probably be happy for guys like Rakitic too from a Barca point of view. Messi never looked comfortable or happy with the NT so for god's sake, get this monkey off his back. He's not the saviour of the Argentinan people ffs. Let him be what he is and conservate his form for Barca as long as he can. You know, the best for the club and probably the best for the NT either.
Problem is Messi himself! He's dictating too much and this is what you get. He's not helping missing penalties either. There are many issues and sampaoli is not the only one.
He probably should attempt 1 more CA as long as there is a competent coach in charge. Although with Brazil doing well in general that could be a tough order. I can see him letting it go after this. I think at this point he realizes even if they get past the group phase now, it's only a matter of time before they get knocked out with the way things are. And with Argentina, winning is the only thing that matters.
Totally agree . I saw a survey a while back that suggested that the majority of Argentinians much prefer Maradona over Messi despite all the formers indiscretions and are happy to champion him whatever he does ...
Maradona has 2 things going for him. He won a WC and has a very outgoing personality. People can relate to him. They feel he is real despite all his personal problems.